Thank you ReetP and Jean-Philippe,
I've spent a bit of time looking at this and rebuilt the server so that I could try accessing the 'live' pop box without making any modifications. However no change.
I am seeing a Cron email from Cron <root@sme10> /etc/startmail:
/var/lock/fetchmail/fetchmail.pid: No such file or directory
fetchmail: lock creation failed.
The maillog on the rebuild server has a repeated entry regarding spam checking so presumably no an issue. I've tried turning off spam checking just in case with no change:
Sep 9 12:43:12 sme10 spamd[5275]: config: configuration file "/usr/share/spamassassin/73_sandbox_manual_scores.cf" requires version 3.004004 of SpamAssassin, but this is code version 3.004005. Maybe you need to use the -C switch, or remove the old config files? Skipping this file
I've tried to check the other logs but I assume they are empty as the tail command doesn't open them, but they are in the log folder.
When I list the log directory there is no fetchmail log.
I'm unable to see if the server is trying to make a connection or what the error code might be.
On this fresh build I've not installed any contribs, although on the last build and test I did install:
DiskUsage
Fetchmail (to enable the 'Mail Retrieval' button in server manage and allow collection of mail from 2nd pop box.
using the command in the documentation:
yum --enablerepo=smecontribs install smeserver-fetchmail
signal-event console-save
In addition:
# /sbin/e-smith/audittools/newrpms
Returns the following for my working production server.
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, post-transaction-actions, smeserver
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* smeaddons: www.mirrorservice.org
* smeos: www.mirrorservice.org
* smeupdates: www.mirrorservice.org
Extra Packages
imapsync.noarch 1.684-1.el6 @epel
libmcrypt.x86_64 2.5.8-9.el6 @smecontribs
perl-Data-Uniqid.noarch 0.12-2.el6 @epel
perl-IO-Socket-INET6.noarch 2.72-1.of.el6 @smecontribs
perl-IO-Tee.noarch 0.64-1.el6 @epel
perl-Mail-IMAPClient.noarch 3.37-1.el6 @epel
perl-NTLM.noarch 1.09-1.el6 @epel
perl-Parse-RecDescent.noarch 1.965-1.el6 @epel
php-kolab-net-ldap3.noarch 1.0.7-2.el6 @smecontribs
php-pear-Mail-mimeDecode.noarch 1.5.5-1.el6 @smecontribs
php-pear-Net-IDNA2.noarch 0.1.1-3.el6 @smecontribs
php-pear-Net-LDAP2.noarch 2.1.0-1.el6 @smecontribs
php-pear-Net-Sieve.noarch 1.3.4-1.el6 @smecontribs
roundcubemail.noarch 1.1.3-101.el6.sme @smecontribs
roundcubemail_plugins.noarch 1.2-2.el6.sme @smecontribs
smeserver-diskusage.noarch 0.2.0-2.el6.sme @smecontribs
smeserver-dovecot-extras.noarch 0.1.1-2.el6.sme @smecontribs
smeserver-fetchmail.noarch 1.6-15.el6.sme @smecontribs
smeserver-roundcube.noarch 1.2-9.el6.sme @smecontribs
sqlite.x86_64 3.7.17-9.el6.sme @smecontribs
The server is connecting to the internet as I'm able to send outgoing mail to the pop box I'm trying to collect from, but oddly not to email accounts outside of my 'reseller' hosting server. [Fixed by setting a valid 'from' email address in Horde !]
Could it be that a missing contrib is the issue ? It seems that imapsync was installed to try and move some mail some time ago and I wonder of Dovecot-extras was related as we don't use IMAP.
I've since istalled fetchmail and diskusage but no change. However the cron email message above is is repeated 3 times, which matches the number of pop accounts to be checked as set in "email>email reception settings" and "mail retrieval".